Page:Life Amongst the Modocs.djvu/229

 hat would

run away from the squaws, and would sleep all summer. They tell him it is spring-time now, and he had better get up and come out and see the sun. The most remarkable thing, however, is, that so soon as the bear hears the pounding on the tree, he begins to dig and endeavour to get out ; so that the Indians have but little to do, after he is discovered, but to sit down and wait till he crawls out, blinking and blinded by the light in his small black eyes, and despatch him on the spot. Bears when taken in this way are always plump and tender, and fat as pos sible ; a perfect mass of white savoury oil.

Klamat was a splendid hunter, and even without the aid of the Indian dogs, managed to take several bears this first winter, which, after all, was not so long and dull as one would suppose. I sometimes think we partook somewhat of the nature of the bear, in our little snowy cabin among the firs that winter, for before we hardly suspected it, the birds came back, and spring was fairly upon us.

When the snow had disappeared, and our horses grew sleek and fat and strong again, Klamat and I rode far into the pines together and found a lake where the wild geese built nests in the margin among the tules.

The Prince and the Doctor went up the canon in search of gold, for want of something better to do, and by the time the summer set in, had found a deposit in a quartz ledge, looking up towards the mountain. Gold appeared to be not over abundant nor did it